Former UC Berkeley Tree-Sitter Injured in West Bank

Former UC Berkeley tree-sitter Tristan Anderson was critically injured Friday while protesting the construction of a separation barrier in Na'alin, a town in the West Bank.

Anderson, an Oakland resident, sustained a large wound in his forehead after being hit with a tear-gas canister fired by armed Israeli soldiers, his friend Kate Raphael told Bay City News.

Jonathan Pollack, an Israeli activist who has known Anderson for many years, said the incident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. local time toward the end of a protest beginning around noontime, according to Bay City News.

After undergoing surgery at the Tel Hashomer hospital, Anderson was still unconscious and in critical condition, Pollack told Bay City News yesterday.

Anderson, who attended UC Berkeley, was involved in an almost two-year-long tree-sit against the construction of an athletic center in the oak grove near Memorial Stadium. The protest, which ended in September 2008, became the longest urban tree-sit in history.

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